Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort could spend the rest of his life in prison, according to a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia, assigned to oversee the case.
The longtime political lobbyist faces an 18-count indictment in Virginia, which was handed up by a federal grand jury as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III for the Eastern District of Virginia has set strict terms for Manafort’s home confinement. In it, the judge writes that it will include “24-hour-a-day lockdown” home incarceration with location monitoring in his Alexandria condo except for medical necessities, meetings with his defense attorneys and court appearances.
Ellis explained that Manafort is “a person of great wealth” and “has the financial means and international connections to flee and remain at large, as well as every incentive to do so” in the order made public on Tuesday.
“Specifically, given the nature of the charges against the defendant and the apparent weight of the evidence against him, defendant faces the very real possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison,” wrote Ellis.
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